The States and Public Higher Education Policy: Affordability, Access, and Accountability

by Donald E. Heller (Editor)

Overview

Affordability, access, and accountability have long been among the central challenges facing higher education—and they remain so today. Here, Donald E. Heller and other higher education scholars and practitioners explore the current debates surrounding these key issues.

As students and their families struggle to meet rising tuition prices, and as state funding for higher education dwindles, policymakers confront issues of affordability within state and institutional budgets. Changing demographics and challenges to affirmative action complicate the admissions process even as colleges and universities seek to diversify enrollments. And issues of institutional accountability have forced the restructuring of higher education governing boards and a reexamination of the role of public trustees in governance.

This collection analyzes how issues of affordability, access, and accountability influence the way in which state governments approach, monitor, and set public higher education policy. The contributors examine the latest research on pressing challenges, explore how states are coping with these challenges, and consider what the future holds for public postsecondary education in the United States.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781421404776
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/01/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	288
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Donald E. Heller is Dean and Professor of Education in the College of Education at Michigan State University.

Table of Contents

Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Affordability, Access, and Accountability in Twenty-first Century Public Higher Education
Part I: Affordability
Chapter 1. Trends in the Affordability of Public Colleges and Universities: The Contradiction of Increasing Prices and Increasing Enrollment
Chapter 2. The Continuing Paradox of Public College Tuition Inflation
Chapter 3. Reforming How States Finance Higher Education
Part II: Access
Chapter 4. Reframing Access and Opportunity: Public Policy Dimensions
Chapter 5. Race-Conscious Decision-Making in a State-Driven Admissions Process: Texas, the University of Texas at Austin, and the Top Ten Percent Plan
Chapter 6. After Proposition 209: Post– Affi rmative Action College Access Policy in California
Part III: Accountability
Chapter 7. Assessing Student Learning Outcomes in College: The Role of the States
Chapter 8. Accountability Policies: Directions Old and New
Chapter 9. Responses to the Call for Public Accountability: Using Student Data Systems to Facilitate Improvement in Degree Attainment
Conclusion: State Policy and Technology: Aims, Realities, and the Uncertain Future
List of Contributors
Index

What People are Saying About This

Paul T. Brinkman

Heller has assembled a fine group of scholars and thinkers to address the important and timely themes of access, affordability, and accountability in state higher education policy. In these essays the authors discuss policy issues in a thoughtful, reasoned way, outside of the heat of battle during legislative sessions.

— Paul T. Brinkman, Associate Vice President for Budget and Planning, University of Utah

Editorial Reviews

Professors of education policy and political science, university administrators, and public policy advisors present contributions, mostly drawn from a June 1998 conference held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, addressing the major policy issues facing public higher education. Some topics include the paradox of college prices; the contemporary politics of access (focusing on California after Proposition 209); and the issue of public accountability. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews

There may be no better survey of state policy in higher education than what Heller provided in his 2001 edited volume. . . It will come as no surprise to the higher education community that the second edition of The States and Public Higher Education Policy provides all the same benefits while situating the conversation in a more contemporary context. Faculty and students of higher education policy will be particularly appreciative because this volume will serve as the foundation for many higher education policy courses.
—Nathan J. Daun-Barnett, Review of Higher Education

Affordability, access, and accountability will continue to be hot-button issues as legislators at all levels address constituents' concerns about their children's future . . . Any administrator who wants to gain a deeper understanding of these issues . . . might do well to spend some time with these essays.
—University Business

From the Publisher

Affordability, access, and accountability will continue to be hot-button issues as legislators at all levels address constituents' concerns about their children's future . . . Any administrator who wants to gain a deeper understanding of these issues . . . might do well to spend some time with these essays.

University Business

There may be no better survey of state policy in higher education than what Heller provided in his 2001 edited volume. . . It will come as no surprise to the higher education community that the second edition of The States and Public Higher Education Policy provides all the same benefits while situating the conversation in a more contemporary context. Faculty and students of higher education policy will be particularly appreciative because this volume will serve as the foundation for many higher education policy courses.

Review of Higher Education - Nathan J. Daun-Barnett